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Last week I neglected to post anything on my blog. I could defend myself and say that I didn’t have any creative energy, forgot, or had too much going on. Most of these reasons are true, but really I think it just comes down to the fact that I was too lazy.

I’ve been good about posting for a while now, but have noticed that since I started working at my current job, I’ve started to become lazier in the creative sense. I am on my feet for my entire shift, aside from one 15 minute break and any trip to the bathroom. So yes, it can be tiring. But I’ve noticed as well that a lot of my coworkers are…well, lazy.

I know we’ve all heard the saying “you are what you eat”, meaning if you eat poorly, your body and energy levels will reflect your food decisions. I’m not sure if there’s a phrase for “you are who you hang out with” though, at least when you don’t have a say in the people you have to work with.

As hard as I’ve tried to not fall into patterns and behaviors that I see in my coworkers (I try to work when I’m at work and not waste time—you know, take some pride in my work even though it’s not what I want to do as a career) it can be difficult to resist mentalities that you are around almost every day.

Of course everyone’s entitled to be lazy or spend their free time as they wish. I think that when we’re at work we should work though. The interesting thing is that I haven’t adopted the lazy attitude of many of my coworkers while I’m at work. I’ve noticed however, that instead of thinking about creative or original things while I’m working, I kind of zone out.

The work I do as a cake decorator is repetitive. I can’t experiment with new ideas or designs; I have to make the cakes that the store wants me to make. Now that I don’t have to think quite so hard about how to follow the exact guidelines I am given, my mind is able to wander while I’m working—unless of course a customer has a question or needs help.

I enjoy my work. I don’t dislike it. It’s not a place that gives me free reign of course, but not many jobs are like that that I know of. I’m curious how other people approach their work days. Do we all space out until it’s quitting time? What do we do when we’re done for the day? Do we all just go home and continue to be mindless zombies?

Now that I’ve caught myself falling into these patterns, I’m going to make more of an effort to stop myself from zoning out. I should stop focusing on the fact that my feet hurt, or that my coworker is annoying me and instead focus on challenging my brain instead of letting it be lazy.

I hope that all of us are able to find hobbies that we enjoy, and also challenge us when we aren’t at our mindless jobs. If we’re just going through the motions every day and really have nothing original to be proud of, what’s the point of doing what we’re doing?